Statement on World Food Day 2025

Statement by Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on World Food Day (16 October 2025)

Theme: “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future”
 

On World Food Day, we at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity join our partners at FAO—who are also celebrating their 80th Birthday—in highlighting the vital importance of working now for a more food-secure and sustainable future.

Food security, sustainability and biodiversity go together. That is why we need to work “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future”.

This year’s theme of World Food Day echoes the vision of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—the KMGBF: working together to secure the well-being of people in harmony with nature.

The KMGBF cannot be achieved without a global push for sustainable agrifood systems.

Conversely, biodiversity lies at the very foundation of the world’s food security, nutrition and resilience.

The full implementation of the KMGBF will ensure that biodiversity can continue to sustain food security and nutrition.

It is important to acknowledge that the prevailing ways of growing food are choking the planet’s ecosystems. This is driving and being compounded by biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution and climate change.

In addition to transformative change in agrifood systems, the world must also work harder on diversifying diets. Nine species supply 66% of the world’s total crop production. This is leaving humankind vulnerable.

The CBD Secretariat’s initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition provides a roadmap for action. But implementation requires collective efforts and integrated policies that foster synergies between biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and agriculture.

The updating of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans –the vehicles for implementing the Global Framework-- is a great opportunity to seize and leverage the required synergy.

A whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to implementation is vital. This of course includes the empowerment of indigenous peoples and local communities, smallholders and family farmers, women and youth.

Let us join hands then, and grow a better future for all.